Tamryn's Hunt
by Pyro2190
Summary: A young teenager with telekinetic powers tries to aid his town in a fight against a newly formed gang with the aid of his friend and teacher, Gnarus, and a reluctant fellow student, Lucas.
1. Chapter 1

TAMRYN'S HUNT

**Part 1**

Tamryn slinked across the cold, dark alley as quietly as a cat stalking its prey; his black boots making no sound as he walked. This was one of the longer alleyways in the area, with three dumpsters and one side door to each of the buildings on the two sides. Dusk was starting, giving the already dark alleyway more of a feeling of dampness and evil. There were cardboard boxes and other various items scattered everywhere as evidence of at least six homeless people who used to live here. The wind brought the smell of rotting garbage through the alleyway, so Tamryn lifted his grey bandana to his face to help with the smell; his dark red eyes watched as his target continued along, trying to ignore the smell. 

The thug that Tamryn was tracking stumbled away on the other side of the alley; looking back in fear frequently, but never seeing Tamryn. This was his intention and planned on keeping it that way. Tamryn had been wondering if gangs were starting to form for about a month now, and he thought that today was going to be the day if he found out if this was true or not. From hiding place to hiding place Tamryn darted, constantly staying just out of the thug's vision. For now the thug just thought he was being paranoid. Tamryn recalled what had happened a few hours ago that had started this escapade. 

It had been a quite week, which normally would have made Tamryn happy, but it the quite had come too sudden. For the two weeks previous the streets had been a buzz with crime, and then the worst happened. For the first time since Tamryn started protecting the streets, a double homicide occurred. As long as Tamryn could remember, it has always been small, petty crimes that occurred. Druggies wanting money, someone wanted a quick boost in life, all involving money is some way. Rapes were occasional, but even those were shocking in this area. Now a double homicide had been committed, and the streets had become as quiet as the animals become before a tornado strikes. 

Around noon, Tamryn heard what he had been waiting for, a quick cry for help, quickly snuffed out, probably by a hard punch. He took off in the direction of call, and found a big dude, probably about 6'2", stealing the jewelry off of an unconscious woman who looked to be of higher society. She was probably a hostage taken from a local jewelry store robbery; apparently it went sour since the thug didn't seem to have much on him. 

Tamryn quietly came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, keeping in mind the gun that he was carelessly wielding; probably a new guy to the criminal life. **"Excuse me, but I believe what you're doing is…"** Tamryn wasn't given a chance to finish his sentence as the thug spun around, ready to shoot Tamryn. As he did so Tamryn grabbed the thug's arm, keeping the gun pointed away from his head and gave him a swift punch to the stomach. The thug dropped his gun and clenched his stomach, trying his best to stay standing and staring at Tamryn**. "Well now that's not the way to make new friends, you should work on your people skills."** This was one of Tamryn's favorite parts: the mocking. 

"**You should learn to mind your own business. I've had enough of you messing up my plans."** Plans? This idiot didn't look like he could conceive a plan that did anyone any good. He should've hired someone to do it for him; it would've at least bought him another ten minutes. 

"**Come on; don't be so sour, it's probably been fun. Although to be honest I don't remember you. Hang on, I've got an idea."** With that Tamryn gave him a punch to face, giving him a black eye. The punch had enough force to send the thug to the ground on his back. **"Oh yeah, I remember you now. Sorry, I didn't recognize you without the black eye and you being on the ground. Last time I saw you, you tried to steal money from a prostitute. Don't you realize that with all the crime in this town they all carry weapons with them? Needless to say, I wasn't particularly needed on that occasion. So I had nothing to do with 'messing up your plans' your own stupidity did that. I simply brought you to the police station. What happened? Did they laugh you out of the station?"**

"**No! For your information,"** he paused to cough; Tamryn was hoping there was blood somewhere in there. **"They let me off with doing community service, but I bailed out on the last few hours. I've been living with my friends, and when they hear about what you did, you're dead!"** Tamryn highly doubted that this guy had friends, which meant that he was probably talking about a gang he had become a member of. This also made it likely that they couldn't care less about this guy. 

"**So let me get this straight, you bailed out being just a few more hours away from legal freedom? Not particularly bright, are ya? Tell you what,"** Tamryn said as he picked up the gun the thug had dropped, **"You go back to your 'friends' and tell them what I did, and we'll see if these friends of yours will be successful. Tell them I'm available this weekend, we can throw a party."** Tamryn pretended to walk away, as he did he hid out of the thug's line of sight. When the thug was thought that Tamryn was far enough away, he got up and began to walk in a determined direction, and thus the hunt began.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

A bit after the sun had set, the thug went into the more suburban area near the outskirts of the city. Tamryn continued to flit just out of the thug's field of vision, keeping a careful eye on where the thug might be going. It was a full moon tonight, giving everything an eerie shadow making the thug that much more paranoid. It was almost entertaining for Tamryn seeing how jumpy he was now. 

Soon they came to a shady, run-down, one-story home. It had three windows on the front with all of the shades completely closed. The roof looked like it would've only taken one good storm to knock down; while the white paint on the house was flaking badly. There was fencing all around the home with what looked like barbed wire going across the two sides. Tamryn suspected that it probably continued to the back side of the house as well, but that was out of view. The front lawn was like jungle of grass at least four feet high. All of this gave the house a menacing feeling of age and danger. It even started to creep out Tamryn a bit. Tamryn noticed that there was a window on the right side of the house that had the shades completely drawn as well, but it had no glass. As the thug opened the front gate, which creaked horribly, Tamryn decided that that window would probably be his best point of entry. 

The thug took one last nervous look around before opening the front door and entering the house. Tamryn slinked over to the side of the house and jumped over the fence as quietly as he could; although the tall grass and the barbed wire made this interesting, he managed to do it pretty well. Tamryn stood stalk-still next to the window, listening for anyone in the room. From the echoes the thug seemed to be in another room, so Tamryn took his chances and went in. He slowly moved the shades out of the way and stuck himself to the floor like glue. 

Tamryn found himself in a somewhat empty room. There was a couch in front of him with its back facing him, so Tamryn decided to hide there. As he peered around the left corner, he saw the front door where the thug had entered and a number of boxes that, unlike most of the things in the house (and the house itself for that matter), didn't seem to have dust on them. Although this intrigued Tamryn, he decided against looking at them closer for now. Judging from the rest of the room, it was more of a meeting place than anything else. There were a few more chairs and a few more boxes, and that was about it. On the right side there was an entryway leading to the dining room/kitchen area, and that's where Tamryn could hear the thug's footsteps walking further away. The floor was creaking badly from the sounds of it, so Tamryn used his telekinesis to lift much of his bodyweight off of the ground to keep from making the floor creak. 

Tamryn made his way past the kitchen into a hallway that had a single door left ajar near the end. Leaving no mystery as to where the thug went. Tamryn heard one last sound of a door opening and closing, then almost complete silence. That's when Tamryn began to hear voices coming from what seemed to be the floor. However, as he made his way across the hall the voices got a bit louder. He very slowly opened the door after judging it to be empty and realized that the voices were indeed coming from the floor. So Tamryn pressed his ear against the floor and began to listen. 

"…**.Tamryn, he let me go with this black eye."** It was easy to figure out who this was. 

"**What makes you so sure that he didn't follow you here?"** This voice was quick and sharp and probably cracked at the thug like a whip. Tamryn decided to start assigning numbers to the voices to keep it more organized in his head. This was Voice 1. 

"**I watched him walk around the corner and then I heard his footsteps keep going for bit, I stayed where I was for a long time to make sure he didn't follow,"** said the idiot thug. He sounded a bit more anxious now and was talking a bit faster. The people that he was talking to were probably his superiors, or were just really intimidating. Knowing this thug, it didn't really take much to intimidate him. 

"**Which leaves the question, why did he let you go? Normally he knocks people out and brings them to the police station. Did he, by any chance, say anything else to you?"** Voice 2 was a bit slower and articulate. Tamryn could tell that this was the kind of guy who chose his words carefully. Through the carefulness of his words, there was a soft, yet coldness to his voice that made him seem more like the leader type for this kind of group. 

"**W-well, wh-when I told him that h-he would pay f-for what he had done to me. H-he told me to tell you th-that he was available this weekend. H-he wanted to throw a party."** This was followed by two people laughing and a soft chuckle from voice 2. 

Tamryn thought to himself, **'Jeez, this guy really is the dumbest thug I've ever met.' Although he was enjoying how scared and nervous he was starting to sound.  
**

"**Quiet,"** said voice 2. He didn't even raise his voice, he just simply said it. Then there was silence. Now there was no doubt in Tamryn's mind that this was the leader of the group. **"Since you obviously don't realize it, he was simply toying with you; his second-most annoying habit."** Tamryn couldn't help but smile at this; it was good to know that his wit was appreciated. Although he started to wonder what his MOST annoying habit was; probably stopping crimes in the first place. **"Now it's about time we dealt with him. We are getting more recruits every day; we now have forty-two recruits with us. Soon we will be ready to get rid of our little annoyance."** Little annoyance?!? Tamryn was offended, with the work he had done he deserved to be called much worse things than just a "little annoyance". He would just have to work on that. **"Soon the next phase in our plan we be launched, we will…"** and that's when Tamryn had to go and do something stupid. 

He lost his concentration on his telekinesis and all of his weight fell on the floor. This was immediately followed a giant _CCCRRREEEAAAKKK!!!_ Then the floor suddenly gave way, and Tamryn began to fall. Things almost seemed like they were moving in slow motion. As he fell he saw the leader starting to get up from the couch he was sitting on, the two men on either side began to raise their M-16s toward the Tamryn as he fell. **'M-16s?!?'** Tamryn thought to himself, **'Where the hell did they get those?!?'** That's when Tamryn's thoughts went back to the boxes, and he realized what was probably in them. The thug Tamryn had been following had been groveling on the floor, and now looked up with surprise. 

Then time seemed to catch up with them, and Tamryn landed on his hands and feet right in the middle of them. **'OOWWW, I'll never do that again!'** Tamryn thought to himself. However, out loud he said, **"Sorry, thought I'd drop in and tell you that this weekend won't work out after all, so maybe we can have the party now."** They didn't seem to like this idea and the two men with the M-16s began to pull the triggers. As they did so Tamryn's memory flashed back to the first time he'd been shot and his body began to go abuzz with energy. **"NO!"** Tamryn yelled and, almost unwillingly, the energy that Tamryn had felt suddenly exploded out of his body in all directions, knocking everything in the room backwards including the four people in the room. Tamryn felt the effects of fatigue wash over his body, and he spotted a window near the top of the basement. 

While the four men were still trying to recover from what happened, Tamryn spent that time jumping towards the window and bursting through the glass. He willed his body to produce as much adrenaline as he could, and ran. Never stopping, he ran and ran and ran until he could barely breathe. Even then he knew he couldn't stop running, the adrenaline couldn't stop otherwise he'd collapse from the energy lose. Finally, Tamryn made it to his target, Gnarus' building. He unlocked the door, walked in, and let himself collapse. He was safe……


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

Tamryn opened his eyes, but then quickly closed them as the sun shone in his face. **"It's good to see that you're back with us."** Gnarus was sitting in a chair near the couch that Tamryn was lying on. Gnarus was a tall old man, probably in his fifties, yet his eyes had the spark of someone in their twenties. His hair was short and whiter than snow, giving him the look of many years of experience; yet the way that he held himself, again, looked like he was still in the prime of his life. Tamryn could never figure him out, sometimes Gnarus would be as energetic and humorous as any teenager, and other times he would be a strict old teacher who looked like he never smiled. This dual personality gave him the confusing look of both age and youth at the same time. Gnarus' age was thus, indeterminable without asking him, and he would never answer. 

"**Well, as close as I'm going to get for now."** Tamryn sat up on the couch, still squinting. **"How long was I out this time?"** asked Tamryn, rubbing the last of the grogginess from his eyes. 

"**Not very long, you just had a good night's sleep really."** Gnarus answered as he got up from his chair. He wore dark blue jeans and a short-sleeved, black, collared shirt. His arms showed the marks and scars of years of fighting. Against whom, Tamryn knew not. Although they were good friends, Tamryn still knew very little about him. **"So,"** Gnarus continued as he walked towards the fridge, **"Did you find what you were looking for yesterday?"**

As he told Gnarus of the previous day's events, Gnarus sat back down in his chair after getting him and Tamryn a drink and listened attentively. As Tamryn finished he chuckled slightly and muttered under his breath, **"Huh, reminds me more of him every day."**

"**Sorry?"** Tamryn asked, although he had heard him very clearer, this wasn't the first time he had said something like that. 

"**What? Oh, nothing. So, this city's criminals finally have a leader it seems. Things are going to get much more interesting then."** Again side-stepping the subject, Gnarus moved on. 

"**It looks like the next step for you is going to be to find out how exactly they are organizing themselves and where their headquarters are. If I'm right, that house you went to was probably abandoned anyway, and they simply used the free space to store their weaponry. The thug you were following probably just simply knew that they would be there last night. Either way it's not likely they'll be going back now that you know where it is. Your main issue right now should be how they are getting those guns and how many they have."** While he spoke he became as serious as a military leader discussing strategy in war. 

"**We'll talk about the guns later,"** Tamryn responded, **"What I want to know right now is what exactly happened when all my energy was released. I'd rather not have that happen on accident again."**

"**Ah yes, that,"** Gnarus seemed to have forgotten about that for a second, **"Nothing more than another advancement in your telekinetic powers. I like to call it, the Concussion Wave. It's simply a slightly less controlled version of what you use all the time. What happens is that the energy you normally use on a controlled point gets dispersed in all directions as a wall of energy. If you don't know how to use it, it will use most, if not all of the energy you have; as you saw last night. However, in a way it's good that you caused as much damage as you say. That means that your powers are advancing and you can use more without using as much energy."**

"**Well that's always a good thing. Now back to the guns,"** Tamryn knew what he wanted to know now. Now it was time for business. **"With my luck those M-16s aren't the only ones they have. Depending on where they got them from, they could have a variety of Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns, the works. I'm also willing to bet money that they have AK-47s as well. With how common they are, there's no way they don't have those."**

Tamryn stood up and began to pace. Pacing was what he did when he thought a lot. **"Now the leader said that they had about 42 recruits. Judging by how many boxes I saw, they have enough guns to arm most of their men. Of course those couldn't be the only place where they kept their weapons, so I'm sure they have plenty of spares. In order for us to really find out where they are, I think it's time we take advantage of Project: Behind Enemy Lines. What do you think Gnarus, is he ready?"** Tamryn wasn't sure about this, but it was their best bet to finding out what they needed to know. 

Gnarus thought for a while and put his face in his hands. He didn't really want to do it either, but it had to be done. **"I wish we didn't have to gamble lives like this, but he is a volunteer, and I believe he's ready. I'll tell him that it's time. At least he'll have something to look forward to when he comes in for the next martial arts lesson. By the way, do you know if your little toy is working?"**

Tamryn smirked and answered, **"Yes, and just for the record, I enjoy being a genius."**

Gnarus shook his head and smiled. Then he picked up a MP3 Player that was sitting on the counter in the kitchen, pressed a button on the side of it and said, **"It's time. Meet me here after the next lessons."**


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

It was nearing night time, the city began to close down for the day, and Lucas was on the prowl. There were few people left on the streets, only those who were courageous enough to come out at night with all of the crime. Lucas leaned casually against a pole next to the newspaper stand. He was wearing brown jeans that he had had for almost three years along with a black t-shirt and average hiking shoes. Nothing more than an average teenager, someone who you could take one look at and forget in the next instant. This was exactly what Lucas wanted, and he was good at getting what he wanted. 

His dark brown eyes vaguely looked at the magazine Lucas held in his hand, not that he was interested in it. No, he had another goal in mind then just catching up with the latest celebrity gossip. Lucas kept glancing at the other people buying magazines and newspapers while he vaguely turned the pages in the magazine he had. 

Lucas had been there for over an hour and had looked at seven or eight different magazines when a woman came up to the stand and bought a newspaper. The woman had on an expensive looking coat and earrings that probably cost a fortune. She opened her wallet to pay for the newspaper and in doing so she revealed over $200 in cash that she had. **'Bingo'**, thought Lucas. This was the perfect target, one of the best ones he had had in weeks. He waited for her to walk a few paces before buying the magazine he had been holding to avoid suspicion and began to follow her. 

On the next block was an alleyway that would make for the perfect place to grab the cash and go. Lucas knew this city's alleyways well, and he knew that the one up ahead wasn't a dead end, so he could run through the other side and get away. As they crossed the road, Lucas came up very close behind her and put his hand casually in pocket, getting ready to pull out his knife. 

As they drew up next to the alleyway Lucas put his arm around the woman's neck, knife drawn, and dragged her quickly into the alleyway. He pinned her against a dumpster and she started to scream Lucas turned her around so they were looking eye to eye and put his knife against her throat. **"I wouldn't do that if I were you."** Lucas said quietly. His voice, though quiet, pierced the woman in such a way that the knife almost wasn't needed. **"Now give me your wallet and your coat. Then we'll talk about letting you go."** Lucas continued. He said it in such a way that the woman thought that conversation wasn't going to go well, she thought she was going to die. 

"**P-please don't hurt me. Take whatever you want, just don't kill me."** She said this without yelling to keep the man happy. Maybe she could still talk her way out of this. Lucas laughed a bit at her terror, and grabbed her wallet from the coat pocket she had put it in. 

"**Just for the record,"** Lucas said, **"I'm a very good pickpocket, but this is so much more enjoyable."** He smiled as he said this. The woman realized what was about to happen and began thrashing as much as she possibly could just out of shear terror. 

Then a man came up next to them, so soundlessly that Lucas could've sworn he had simply teleported. **"Why hello there, do you need assistance?"** The man's voice was so chilling that his simple question made both Lucas and the woman completely quiet and still as statues. Even their breath caught. The woman turned to look at the man and plead for help, but his cold, dark eyes were on the person attacking her, not the woman. 

"**No, I've got this. Why do you care anyway?"** Lucas replied, this guy was creepy as hell and Lucas just wanted him to leave. The woman saw that she had a chance to escape when Lucas looked away, but the second she started to get loose from his grip the mysterious man punched her with lighting speed that knocked her unconscious. Out of surprise Lucas let the woman fall to the ground. 

"**Now then,"** the man continued on as if nothing had happened, **"I've got an offer for you that I'm sure you'll enjoy. Would you like to hear it?"** Now that Lucas didn't have the distraction of trying to keep the woman from escaping, he looked closer at this mysterious man. He stood at about six feet high, with a black trench coat that hid most of his figure. The rest of his clothes were black as well. His clothes made him look sophisticated, and his smile gave the same inner-coldness as his eyes. Any ordinary person would've crossed the street with one glance at this guy, but Lucas decided to hear his offer. 

"**What makes you so sure I'll like what you have to say?"** Lucas scowled, this guy wasn't giving him a good ending to his day, and the day had been bad enough already. 

"**Well you look like a man who's good at getting what he wants,"** Lucas stood a bit straighter as he was referred to as a man. Since he was still in his late teens it felt good to hear that from anyone, **"and I'm sure that what you want is money. What I'm about to offer you will aid you in gaining much more money then you could possibly get doing things like this"** He motioned toward the unconscious woman.

Lucas' ears perked up at this, money was always good. **"Sounds good to me, what's the catch?"** One of the life lessons that Lucas had learned was that there was always a catch. 

The man chuckled a bit and said, **"Well I wouldn't really call it a catch since it will benefit all of us in the end."** He smiled slyly and looked Lucas dead in eye and said with those piercing gray eyes, **"You are in the same martial arts class as Tamryn, correct? We need you to get close to him so that he can be….eliminated. That is all I ask."**

"**How did you know that?"** Lucas demanded quickly and sharply. **"Have you been watching me?"** The man had been creepy enough without knowing things that very few other people knew. Suspicion filled Lucas along with a touch of fear. Who was this man? 

"**That doesn't really matter; just simply tell me if you accept the deal."** This guy may have been extremely creepy, but money tends to have a much bigger say in things when it's something that one currently lacks. So Lucas let it go for now, and decided to see where this conversation was going to go. 

"**Sounds simple enough to me, never liked the punk anyway."** Lucas responded by giving his own eyes a similar coldness and stared the man down. 

The mysterious man smiled a bit more then he already was, amused at Lucas' attempt to intimidate him. **"Very well,"** He drew a piece of folded paper from his pocket and gave it to Lucas saying, **"meet me at this address at the given time. There we can talk about the details a bit more. Make sure you are there."** He turned and walked away as quietly as he had come. Lucas unfolded the piece of paper, looked at it, and put it in his pocket. 

As Lucas began to walk in the opposite direction he pulled out his MP3 Player and put the headphones in his ears, as he did so he said, **"I'm in."**


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

_87368 38__th__ Street; 2330_

That was all the paper said. The military time was odd; Lucas wondered why the man had put it in military time. Maybe he has a military background, or maybe it was symbolizing something else; discipline and strength maybe?

The sun began it's descent in to the western horizon and it began to give off more heat then it had all day. Lucas' internal clock told him that he had about four hours left until the given time. He began to imagine a clock where his heart was, listening to the clock tick along with his heart beat. _Tick, tock…_the sun's heat beat down on Lucas as if the devil himself were prodding him with a hot iron…_tick, tock…_his legs felt like they were made of lead as his body began to go on auto-pilot _…tick, tock…_he began to pass a park, the grass looking like a bed of clouds. Surely there would be enough time for him to take a quick nap…_tick, tock_…Lucas laid down and the grass felt like a bed of flowers and he began to drift off into sleep as he thought about what had happened earlier that day.

The lesson had just ended. Gnarus began to dismiss the students one by one with comments of praise and suggestions for better performance as he always did. Lucas had just gotten his black belt, and he wore it with pride. He felt that his performance had been well today and looked forward to what Gnarus had to say. As Gnarus came to him he said, **"Lucas, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind staying afterwards for a few minutes?"** This took Lucas by surprise. **"Uh, yeah sure." **He stood by as Gnarus dismissed the last of the students and took Lucas into a side room that led to Gnarus' home.

"**Not bad acting,"** Gnarus commented as he closed the door behind him, **"you looked genuinely surprised."**

"**Well, you've taught me to keep my real emotions hidden well."** Lucas answered, **"Besides, it comes with the job; doesn't it?"** He felt that he responded to the praise well. Gnarus didn't like it when most of his students gloated…most of his students.

"**Speaking of hiding your emotions,"** Tamryn snuck up behind Lucas; nearly sending him to the ceiling from surprise **"Not bad acting, you seem genuinely surprised again."** Tamryn laughed at him. This made Lucas angry; he never could understand how Tamryn could be so calm about things in a time like this.

"**At least I can keep myself under control when I have to. I heard a run-down house on the south side collapsed on itself from mysterious damage caused to the basement. Did you hear about that, or are you not **_**concentrating hard enough**_** on the news?"** Lucas had turned towards Tamryn and chose his words carefully as he spoke that last sentence, purposefully targeting Tamryn in his speech.

"**Ho! I see. A battle of wits is this? Well I'm glad we have someone with nerves of steel for this assignment. No honestly, you have the bravery of a deer."**

Then Gnarus stepped in, **"Save it for later you two. Right now we've got something we need to address."** He said sternly. Even Tamryn decided to shut up.

"**So I'm guessing, by the message I got, that Project: B.E.L. is ready to start?"** Lucas asked, although he didn't really need to.

"**Right, you ready for it?"** Tamryn asked seriously. **"As you know, you're going to have to enter the gang's circle and find out everything you can." **Although Tamryn enjoyed joking around, he wanted to make sure that this project went to their advantage and Lucas didn't get killed.

"**Yes, yes, we've been over this before. So shall I go get myself noticed again? I've robbed four people successfully so far." **Lucas became impatient with this meeting; he was ready to start his assignment.

"**Really?" **Tamryn added, **"Well I congratulate you, I only counted three. It's not often a crime goes unnoticed under my watch."** Lucas responded without missing a beat.

"**And you wonder why you need me. Just goes to show how useful this will be." **Lucas sneered; his impatience growing. Tamryn wasn't really bothered by his comment; he wouldn't put it past Lucas to be lying about that fourth one.

"**Alright already!"** Gnarus exclaimed, **"Since you seem to have a good idea of what you need to do, and it is true that we've talked about this many times already, you should go get started. We're depending on how well this goes, Lucas, and we don't want anything to happen to you in the process. That's the only reason why we're making sure you what you need to do."** Gnarus, as usual, putting things in a calmer perspective; Lucas cooled down a bit realizing he was right.

"**I understand." **Lucas sighed, **"I'm ready to begin."**

"**Good,"** Gnarus nodded in approval, **"Good luck and make sure you're not discovered."** Lucas nodded and walked out the door, ready for what was ahead.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6**

Darkness. That's the first things Lucas noticed as he began to drift back into the waking world. He snapped up from the grass like he'd taken a shot of adrenaline. Panic soon filled him as he wondered how much time had passed. Lucas took off running in the hopes that he still had enough time left; the icy air of the night gnawing at his strength and the occasional wind cracking at him like a whip with cold.

As Lucas neared the address, he finally began to slow down; his lungs feeling like he had breathed thousands of sharp needles along with the air. When he was a block away, Lucas collapsed on a near-by lawn, coughing from the effort of forcing his body to run from the park. Waves of pain still ran through his body every time he tried to take a deep breath; his throat burning from breathing in the cold air.

Lucas knew he had to hurry, so he got back up as soon as the pain became tolerable, and, with much effort, slowed his walking speed so that he would be able to breathe normal by the time he got to the address.

Then, Lucas heard a twig snap; in the night it be might as well have been the sound of an anvil dropping. His martial arts instincts kicking in, Lucas immediately dropped behind the wooden fence next to him and tensed his muscles. The suburbs were filled with addicts who were willing to do and steal anything in order to get money for their next fix. Lucas knew this and could not afford for some addict to try and ambush him now. There was just one problem.

Silence. That's all there was. An addict would be clumsy, yet there was complete silence. Lucas found a hole in the fence and looked through it, trying to find the cause of the noise. Soon he found the source: a man, probably about 5'6", crouched next to the corner of the next house; trying to camouflage himself using the nearby bushes. At first Lucas though he was a common robber, but he soon realized that he was probably a sentry. His beady eyes watched the road in front of him for something, though what exactly he was watching for Lucas could only guess; possibly for Lucas.

Lucas figured, **"Well, what do I have to lose?"** He got up as silently as a cat and came within the sight of the sentry. At first the sentry didn't care too much, until Lucas turned and started to walk toward the house that matched the address on the piece of paper.

The sentry responded fact and pulled out his pistol almost faster then Lucas could blink. **"What do ya think yer doin'?"** His voice was gruff, and gave evidence that this man was a smoker. Although this man also smelled of marijuana, his hand didn't shake as he pointed the gun straight at Lucas' head.

Lucas stood with his back straight as his eyes staring with hard defiance at the sentry. **"I was given this,"** he said, handing the man the note with the address, **"Now back off before you make me late."**

The sentry looked at the paper and laughed a deep, rough laugh. **"Ya don't have ta worry about being late. Yer ten minutes early and I see that as ten minutes of fun we can have since ya seem to think yer so tough."** He said with a smile filled with malice.

"**Now, now, we don't want to treat out new recruit with too much disrespect."** An icy voice said from the front door. The mysterious man who had given Lucas the note had quietly appeared in the doorway of the house. His eyes, as cold and as empty as the night sky, looked at the sentry with a look that spoke of high authority.

"**Just havin' a bit of fun, sir. Wasn't actually gonna harm the kid."** The sentry tried to chuckle a bit to make it look more like a joke, but his laugh was cut short by the man's hard stare. He smiled, but it was a chilling smile. Lucas wondered if this man could ever be warm in any way.

"**Just put your gun down. There's no need for that now."**

"**Yes, sir."** The man said begrudgingly as he put his gun back into its holster. The man continued to smile as he heard the slight resentment in the sentry's voice. He could be dealt with later.

"**Well, come inside, my young friend."** He said as he turned his attention to Lucas, **"It's time to show you how we are going to bring freedom to the underground."**


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 7**

The man put his arm on Lucas' shoulder and began to guide him into the house. **"Once you enter this building, there's no turning back. We work in secret, and we intend on keeping it that way. If you attempt to us, we will kill you. No one can know or suspect what we're doing. So the question is: are you ready?" ** He spoke with a gentleness that made it seem like it wasn't so bad; although now the door to the house seemed much more ominous and dark. As if opening it would unleash evil like no other on to the world. It's coldness matching that of the mysterious man trying to guide Lucas into the house. The door almost seemed to call to him, but Lucas had to shake that off. He was here to stop them, not to fully join their cause.

"**Yeah, whatever, as long as this'll help make things change around here."** answered Lucas, never taking his eyes off the door.

"**Oh, don't worry," **the man responded, his smile now a confident smirk **"things will change."** With that he walked towards the door and grabbed the doorknob. As he turned the doorknob Lucas began to have a much stronger feeling of dread about this whole thing. The door slowly creaked open, and Lucas' feeling of dread continued. Pandora's Box seemed to have been opened along with the door; Lucas half-expected a thousand plagues to come screaming out the door as it was opened with the cold welcome of evil. **"Are you coming in or what?"** the strange man asked. Lucas nodded, not trusting his voice to stay steady, and followed the man inside the house.

Tamryn sat hunched on the edge of the top of a three-story building, his eyes closed as he meditated, listening to the wind as it went by with its eerie, howling song. Meditating helped him calm down and focus. He needed to get everything organized in his head, since his mind felt like a chaotic storm of thoughts. The recent activity, and in-activity, of the local street thugs was bothering Tamryn immensely. Hopefully Lucas would be able to tell them something when they met in two days time for Lucas' next martial arts lesson; Tamryn having finished his lessons.

As he sat and listened to the wind, a piercing scream suddenly cut into his calmness. His eyes flew open as Tamryn focused on the alleyway two buildings, over to the right, where the scream had come from. The wind screamed past him as he ran in the opposite direction that it was going, giving him a slight bit of resistance up on top of the buildings. Tamryn leaped over the alleyways between the buildings between him and his target area; the empty space of the alleyways gaping up at him like a dark, hungry beast ready to swallow him whole if he didn't make his jumps. No matter though, Tamryn made it to the place where the women had screamed just fine.

He stood at the edge of the top of another building, this one only two-story, looking down into an alleyway. Below him was a disheveled woman wearing a torn shirt and no shoes running down the alleyway with, oddly enough, no one in pursuit. Tamryn leaped and darted down the fire escape as he made his way down to the woman. Jumping down a few meters in front of her he asked, **"Are you ok? What happened?"**

"**Oh my god! It's you! Someone tried to rape me, but he ran away when I started screaming! Oh please see if you can catch him and send him to the police!"** She was almost groveling at Tamryn's feet by the time she was done with what she was saying. This was something that a woman hadn't done to him before, so this was a little odd. Whatever, a crime was a crime; this woman was probably just a little on the odd side anyway. He figured he might as well take off before she kissed his bandanna or something.

'Why can't I have a young 20-something hedgehog doing this to me instead of this old 40-something human?' He thought to himself. He sighed and said out loud, **"Did you see which way he ran?"**

"**Uh...yes…I think so. I'm pretty sure he turned left on the other side of the alleyway and took off down the street."** She brushed some hair out of her eyes as she looked up from the ground where she had been groveling at Tamryn with admiration and…did Tamryn see lust in eyes? What the…?!? He took off down the alleyway as fast as he could because he wanted to see if he could catch this guy before he got too far, but mainly to get away from that creepy woman.

Six blocks to the left of where Tamryn had been sitting on the building top was the city's most important bank, and there was where the main action was taking place.

A newlywed couple had walked into the bank ten minutes before-hand to set up a saving account for their unborn child since they had just discovered that the woman was pregnant. The brown-haired man stood nervously next to his wife, who had radiant blonde hair down to her shoulders and a smile to match. While the man had an average build, with nothing extraordinary about him, his wife was a bit on the muscular side and seemed to always stand with confidence. The bank teller helping them looked suspiciously at the man, he seemed oddly uneasy. **"Sir, are you ok?"** He asked. This had been a long day and this bank teller felt he didn't get paid enough to deal with some of these people all day, so his voice was quite curt.

"**Huh? Oh, yeah. It's still weird thinking I'm going to be a dad, that's all."** Satisfied, the bank employee continued on with assisting them to open their account, this guy didn't exactly seem like he was going to pull a gun out anyway. The wife seemed to get a bit sterner with her husband from then on though.

Outside, an annoyed business man ranted on his phone to some poor soul on the other end about something that had gone wrong at the office. His dark brown eyes were unflinchingly watching everything around him as he shoved his way through the crowd on the sidewalk. Even the people around him flinched when he walked by on his way to the bank and felt sorry for the person he was talking to. **"…well I'm on my way into the bank now, so you've got less then five minutes to get that transaction through! I'm not going to wait very long and most employers would've fired you by now for your extreme incompetence. If I have to wait any longer then ten minutes to get my money then you'll be lucky if you ever get a job again!..."** He continued on and on all the way to the bank and hung up shortly before walking through the doors.

On the corner of the block stood a woman with short, black hair with eyes just as black. She stood impatiently near a telephone booth while young, early-20s guy talked to what seemed to be his girlfriend for an extremely long time. This woman had the build and look of a military woman, with stern eyes watching for any possible attackers. Not that she needed to bother; she only did it out of habit. She might as well have been the she-hulk with the all the muscles she had. Dog tags hung proudly around her neck as well. The kid talking in the booth seemed to have unlimited change. Jeez, when was this kid going to hang up?

Inside the bank, watching everyone's every move in the security room were two underpaid, annoyed, and bored security guards. Often times they were barely paying attention to the screens, and at least one of them were asleep. One was overweight and balding, in his late 40s, and usually the one who was asleep. The second was a new kid who thought this job was going to be cool; since they were protecting people and stuff. Unfortunately he was sadly disappointed and spent most of the day sitting in front of the screens, watching all the people come in and out of the bank with mild interest. Then, the new one saw the unnerving business man enter the bank, looking like he was about ready to stab the nearest object since he had just gotten off the phone with what was easily the worst person that had ever worked for him. The security guard snickered as he saw this guy. **"Hey Paul, wake up! Check out this guy! Should we watch him?"**

The obese guard, Paul, woke up with a snort and slowly walked over to the screens. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he saw the guy the other guard had pointed out and said, **"Nah, don't worry about it Frank. He's just having a bad day."** He turned around and started to head back to where he had been sleeping in his chair.

Frank smiled and gave a slight chuckle. **"Well, you're not a very good judge of people then, are you?"** Surprised by the sudden coldness of his voice, Paul began to turn around, but Frank had stood up quietly and come up right behind him. When Paul had fully turned, he was shocked to see Frank so close, but only for a second. Mainly because a second later Paul was dead, the bone cartilage in his nose having been suddenly shoved up into his brain by a well placed uppercut from Frank. Looking down at the dead body which had fallen backward onto the floor, he laughed and said, **"By the way, my name's not Frank." **

With that he walked out of the security room and made his way to the janitor's room and grabbed the gasoline stored inside. He grabbed it and hastily made his way back to the security room, this time being much careful about other bank employees. Once back inside, "Frank" unlocked the room where they kept all of the video tapes from the cameras, which was an offshoot of the security room. There he began to pour the gasoline everywhere he could, some on the higher shelves, and most on the floor and lower shelves; all the while being careful to get as little on himself as possible. Once he was satisfied, he pulled out a hidden black ski mask tucked inside his long-sleeved uniform and made his way down to the public area of the bank while taking off his uniform security guard jacket, and slipping on a black leather jacket that had been left hanging on a hook in the employees room with two pistols in each of the inside pockets.

The blonde woman setting up a savings account for her unborn child turned to her husband with her almost hypnotizing smile and said, **"Excuse me for just a second honey. I need to use the restroom."** Hurriedly she got up and made her way to the bathroom, her heels clicking on the marble floor the entire way. Once inside she quickly changed out of her shoes and skirt into black tennis shoes and matching jeans that she had fit inside her over-sized purse. No one else was inside the bathroom, so she walked over to the trash bin and lifted up the top, revealing what seemed to be nothing put a pile of used paper towels. However, after a swift dig she found what she was looking for at the bottom: a black ski mask and a camouflage army jacket with body armor along with two pistols, a shotgun, and a submachine gun. Quickly putting everything on she began to walk back out to the main body of the bank.

Meanwhile, in the main room of the bank, the angry business man walked casually to a plant next to the front doors and pulled out a ski mask from an inside pocket of his brown overcoat. Quickly pulling it over his face, he threw off his overcoat to reveal his own arsenal of weapons. A shoulder strap with a fully loaded pistol on each shoulder, two sub-machine guns strapped to his back, grenades lining his belt, and pockets full of extra ammo. Completely dressed in black he now seemed much more intimidating than before, which was saying something. **"May I have your attention everyone?!? Today you will be donating all of your money to a little donation fund that I'm starting. The beneficiaries? That would be me and my crew. So it would do everyone some good to get on the floor right over here where I can see you all."**

Although people began to panic the second they saw the man with the guns, they quickly got the picture when another person with a gun appeared near the emergency exit and a third behind the teller's windows, coming from the employees section of the bank. Soon their minds changed and they decided to hesitantly make their way to the center of the bank, which was completely void of chairs, desks, plants, or anything. Their fates were in the hands of these bank robbers, and they didn't want to die. Three women were in hysterical tears, and the nervous husband kept glancing to where the bathrooms were, hoping that his wife was ok.

The leader of the group, the annoyed business man from earlier, bent down near the hysterical women and said softly, **"Don't worry now, as long as everyone cooperates there won't be anything to cry over. Everything will be over soon."**


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8**

The woman standing on the corner was giving up on ever being able to get into the telephone booth, but no matter; it was about show-time for her anyway.

Making her way down the street, she made a quick side-stop into an alley and retrieved a long-sleeved light-blue jacket that was hidden inside a cardboard box which had been stowed away inside a dumpster. Checking her inside pockets to make sure that the necessary items were there, she continued down the block and made her way to the bank.

As she came up to the front doors of the bank she quickly and stealthily slapped a patch of a local plumber company on her upper arm. It was good timing too, since she managed to catch someone as they got ready to enter the bank. **"I'm sorry ma'am, but the bank's temporarily closed due to some issues with the plumbing. There's been some flooding."**

The woman seemed annoyed and asked, **"Isn't there a bank employee in there somewhere that I could talk to or something? I really need this check cashed."**

"**Nope, sorry ma'am. You can't enter the bank right now. Try again tomorrow."** With that she pulled a piece of paper out of one of her inside pockets with the plumbing company's official watermark on it that said "Bank Temporarily Closed Due To Flooding" and opened the door as she attached it to the inside of the door the other woman stormed away in a huff.

Inside the bank where the gunmen were keeping the hostages, the front doors weren't within view, but the leader heard the creak of the doors opening. He quickly and quietly made his way to the edge of the corner he saw a woman in a plumber's jacket with her back to him. **"Don't worry, Secero, it's just me."** She said as she took a silver, cylindrical object about four inches in diameter and about a foot long.

"**Just making sure, Castrensis, we wouldn't want any unwelcome guests."** Secero replied. Castrensis put the object she had in her hand right in the middle of the two pairs of double doors and pressed a well-hidden button on it. Making sure that is was as close to the corner where the doors and the floor met as close to the middle as possible, two rods began to extend out the circular sides of the cylinder and continued to extend out towards the door frames. Once they reached the door frames, the ends suddenly slightly concaved on themselves to form a point and shot forward a couple inches to bore themselves into the door frame. Once there they expanded again except this time the ends for a claw-like shape that kept them attached solid into the door frame, thus blocking the doors from opening.

Once she had finished doing the same with a second object on the top of the doors, she turned toward Secero and put on a black ski-mask. **"Now then, we shouldn't get any unwelcome company."** Secero tossed Castrensis one of his guns and turned to make his way back to the hostages with Castrensis quickly following him.

"**Lusum, we should be almost done here, get ready to wrap things up."** Secero called out to the masked man behind the tellers.

"**Yes, sir, our goal is almost met."** Lusum responded in a gruffer, deeper voice than his normal one. After all, he wouldn't want the other bank employees to recognize his voice.

"**Excellent, now then,"** Secero said, turning his attention to the hostages all somewhat huddled together, **"As a gift for cooperating with us, you get a couple little party gifts. The first one is your life; you get to walk out those front doors when we say so with your lives fully intact. The second is a free, black jacket and a ski-mask. Unfortunately, in order to walk away with either of these prizes we require that you put on the jackets and ski-masks. Thank you for your cooperation." **Once he was finished he nodded to the beautiful woman and said, **"Venecor, please fetch their prizes."** With that, she disappeared into the men's bathroom and looked into the trash; nothing more than a few used paper towels were in there thankfully. Clearing out the towels, she found a few plastic bags filled with jackets and ski-masks, exactly what she had been looking for.

Back out in the main room, Secero was calmly walking among the hostages, waiting for Lusum to get the rest of the money from the bank tellers. Things seemed to be going rather smoothly. There were a total of eight bank tellers currently there and Lusum was done with six of them while Castrensis had taken up guarding the rest of the tellers to make sure they didn't do anything funny while Venecor had gone off to get the items. Some of the hostages whimpered and sobbed, as to be expected, but Secero was more keeping his eye on the ones that were too calm. Sure enough, Secero had just passed one of them when he heard a voice coming from the pocket of the man behind him. **"911, what's your emergency?" ** Quicker than he could blink Secero turned and saw the man with his hand in his pocket and shot him in the back of the head. The gun went off with a "BAM" and then, quiet suddenly, there was a hole in the back of his head and an even bigger one where his forehead used to be, and he slumped to the ground.

Two women screamed and almost tried to make a break for it, but Venecor had just reentered and quickly raised her gun to them.** "Don't even think about it, or you'll end up like him."** The women froze in their steps and, seeing the gun, dropped to their knees and began to cry.

"**Always has to be one, doesn't there?"** Secero said, shaking his head. He pulled the cell phone out of the man's pocket and ended the call. **"Does anyone else feel like getting shot today?"** No one said a word; in fact Secero thought they might've been holding their breath. **"No one? Good."** Getting a signal from Lusum, he continued, **"Now then, things shouldn't be too much longer."** He walked up to the nearest teller and said to the woman standing there, **"Now you're going to take my friend back there to the vault where he will be making a withdrawal, if you try anything, he will not hesitate to shoot you. Trust me, he's more trigger-happy then I am. Is that understood?"** She nodded timidly and began to lead Lusum to the vault.

Five long minutes later, Lusum walked out with a bag full of money in his hand and a gun raised at the female bank employee as she walked in front of him. At a nod from Secero, Lusum turned and began to make his way back to the employee's lounge where he had gotten his jacket from.

Once he was there, he picked up a backpack he had left there and put the bad of money inside it, and continued to the room that held all of video tapes from the security cameras. The gasoline container was still a quarter full, so Lusum spread the rest of it just to make sure that the room would light up. When he was done he threw the container into the room, walked out of the room, and pulled a match out of his pocket. With one final look into the room, he lit it against the wall and threw it into the room. Immediately flames sprung up and began to spread and dance like a hungry beast, eating all it's path. Lusum quickly put the backpack full of money over his shoulders and began to run to the back of the bank. There, he picked a window that was right above a dumpster. Once he made sure that no one was in the alley, he grabbed a nearby chair and threw it at the window. It shattered easily into hundreds of pieces. Lusum jumped out the window on to the dumpster just a few feet below the window and climbed down into the alley. There he calmly walked down the alleyway to a black van where his driver waited.


	9. Chapter 9

**Part 9**

Secero continued to pace slowly in front of the hostages as they began to put on the matching jackets and ski-masks that had been given to them; their fear almost making him smile. The plan was going perfectly, almost too perfectly. However, for now Secero didn't question it. They were almost done anyway. As long as the Novus did his part well then it would turn out to be a good day.

As the hostages finished putting on the ski-masks and jackets, Secero looked at his watch to make sure that Lusum had enough time to leave. Confirming that he probably did, Secero looked up at the hostages and said, **"Thank you for your time, it's been fun. Unfortunately it's time for us to take our leave. As for all of you, you will be allowed to exit first." ** Castrensis took the cue and walked over to the doors to remove the locking cylinders. **"I know, it's sad that we have to leave, but don't worry, you'll see us later. Good-bye."**

With that Castrensis threw open the front doors and the hostages immediately got up and ran before Secero could change his mind. They ran like scared animals without a thought about anything around them except for the fact there was an escape route, and they were going to take it by any means necessary. So much so that they didn't notice when the three bank robbers dropped their guns and joined the hostages in running out the doors.

When they made it outside the hostages scattered in all directions, except for three. Three ran toward a van that was parked around the block. The side door of the van burst open to reveal Lusum sitting in the back of the van. **"Come on, the sooner we get out of here the better."** He said. Secero, Castrensis, and Venecor and piled into the pack of the van just as the smell of smoke began to fill the air.

After closing the door and taking off his mask, Secero turned to Lusum and said, **"I take it by the smell that we shouldn't be expecting much evidence?"**

Lusum smiled, **"Nope, and not much of anything else that might get in our way either."**

"**Good."** Secero turned to the teenager sitting in the driver's seat, **"Hey Novus! Start up the car already, we want to be AWAY from the scene of the crime, remember?"**

Lucas looked up into the rearview mirror, responding, **"Yeah, yeah, I got it."**

Tamryn walked briskly down the street, angry that he couldn't find the man that had attacked that woman. He always hated it when one got away, especially since it was happening more and more often lately. Tamryn wondered if he was getting slower or if the city's criminals were getting smarter. Whichever one it was, it was a problem.

That's when the sirens came, loud and familiar, screaming down the street going back to where Tamryn had come from. Without hesitating, he ran after the police cars in order to find out what had happened. As he ran all kinds of things went through Tamryn's head: robbery, assault, murder. Anything was possible nowadays. Tamryn noticed that the police vehicles in the front were slowing down as they turned to the right a block ahead. Immediately he knew what it was because around that block was one of the cities biggest buildings: the bank.

Tamryn picked up speed and was met with one of the most bizarre sites he had seen in years in front of the bank. Standing there were almost forty people all dressed in identical jackets and ski-masks, and all of them had been gathered up by the police and were currently on their knees with their hands behind their head.

Looking around, Tamryn found one of his friends: a detective named Mike that he had known since he had lived on the streets. **"Hey Mike!"** Tamryn called, **"What happened here?"**

"**The bank got robbed, Tamryn."** Mike answered without looking up from what he was writing.

"**No, really? I thought these poor people forgot that it was illegal to have ski parties in a public bank."** Tamryn responded sarcastically. Coming up next to Mike, Tamryn continued, **"So did this bank really get robbed by all these people?"**

"**No, these people were just dressed up this way to make it easier for the real robbers to get away it seems. They left in a hurry; there are guns still on the floor inside. Not only that, but we have no way of seeing what happened while the robbery was going on."**

"**Why not? I thought this bank had cameras."**

"**Well, they do, but it seems that the camera room and the room where they stored all of the past tapes were set on fire." **That's when Tamryn noticed the fire truck that had been sitting close to the bank. He had to laugh at himself a bit for not noticing it before. **"I've already talked to the firemen, the fire's put out and it's been confirmed that nothing worth looking at is left. Based on what we have now, we're going to have to let these people go."**

Tamryn sighed, realizing that this was another example of how the criminals were getting smarter. They'd never managed to do a successful bank robbery like this before. He was going to have to talk to Gnarus to get some advice about where to go with this. That old man always seemed to know what to do. Besides, Tamryn had to talk to Gnarus anyway; it'd been too long since Lucas' last check-in.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 10**

Lucas approached the side door that led up to Gnarus' home on the second floor of the building where Gnarus taught his martial arts lessons. He was taking a risk coming here, but he had to talk to Gnarus, too many things were going on for it to wait. Taking one last look up and down the alley to make sure no one was following him; Lucas quietly entered the doorway and made his way up the stairs.

Knocking on the door with a pre-arranged pattern, Lucas waited and listened as he heard Gnarus coming toward the door on the other side. A second later the door flew open and Gnarus, looking both surprised and relieved, wordlessly ushered Lucas quickly inside. Turning on the light, Gnarus motioned for Lucas to sit down on the couch. **"What happened?"** He asked quickly.

"**I'm sorry, Gnarus," **Lucas said quietly. Even here he was nervous. **"Things have been a lot harder then we thought they'd be. I told a couple of the people in my group that I was going to tell you that I was quitting my martial arts lessons soon, so hopefully that's what they'll think I'm doing now."**

Gnarus' eyes suddenly sparked with fear and recognition. **"Group? What do you mean? Is there a set structure that they have?" **

"**Yeah,"** Lucas answered, **"We're all split up into groups of five with one being the leader. None of us know each other's real names. We all just have nicknames based on either our performance or our personalities or both. On the other hand, all of the new people have the same nickname. Getting a personal nickname is almost like some sort of initiation in to the group. Since I'm still new, for now my nickname is –"**

"**Novus." ** Gnarus stated grimly. As Lucas had gone on Gnarus' eyes filled more and more with fear and confusion. **"No, no, this can't be."** He said softly.

"**Yeah, Novus. How did you know?" **Lucas asked.

"**It doesn't matter now."** Gnarus answered quickly, **"What does matter is that you need to get out now. It doesn't matter what you're in the middle of, you need to leave town as fast as you can. Things are much bigger than I had imagined. Things are much less safe for you then I thought before. You are leaving town, no questions, no arguments."** Lucas could hear the cold, hard fear and conviction in Gnarus' voice. He figured that anything that had gotten Gnarus so spooked had to be huge, so he nodded his head.

"**Alright, fine." **No sooner were the words out of Lucas' mouth then Tamryn came through the door. He smiled at seeing Lucas, but it quickly disappeared when he saw the look on Gnarus' face.

"**Well, I take it the bank's not important right now."** Tamryn said.

"**No, it's not." **Gnarus confirmed grimly. **"Lucas, leave now. Don't worry about going home, just get out of town as covertly and quickly as you possibly can. I'm sorry I have to be cryptic, but trust me, it's for the best. Just do it now." **Lucas, now almost afraid, nodded his head and quickly walked out the door. Once the sound of his footsteps died away Gnarus turned to Tamryn and said, **"I want you to leave town as well, but first there's something you must see, and what you'll see is a secret that you must carry to the grave. Do you understand?" **There was almost a quiet fury in Gnarus' eyes that Tamryn had never seen before. Clearly the severity of the situation was far more than Tamryn could comprehend at the moment, so he agreed.

Satisfied, Gnarus rushed downstairs into the main training room, with Tamryn close behind. As he went, Gnarus looked back at Tamryn, **"Do you remember where the small storage room is?"**

"**The one you told everyone never to go near, let alone in it?"**

"**Yes, that one. Go inside it and you'll see green staff about my height. Grab it and bring it to me."** Without hesitating, Tamryn did as he was told and made his way to where the storage closet was. Once he opened it, finding it strangely unlocked, he found the staff quickly not only because it was one of the very few things in it, but also because of its strange metallic yet liquid appearance. Tamryn was baffled and had no idea what kind of metal it was, but just by holding it Tamryn felt like there was a cold power almost resonating from it.

Bringing it to the main training room, Tamryn took note that Gnarus was standing in the middle of the room where there was nothing but a circle with a small dot in the middle of it on the floor design. Once Gnarus received the staff from Tamryn, he held it up over the dot, which Tamryn just realized happened to have about the same diameter as the staff; he looked at Tamryn and said, **"Stand back."**

He barely gave Tamryn enough time to back away before he pushed a hidden button on the side of the staff and the dot on the floor suddenly flipped open, revealing a shaft that the staff could fit in. Gnarus drove it down into the shaft until only about a foot of the staff was showing, and then he gave it a great twist which was followed by the sound of a giant lock being opened. The floor around Gnarus began to drop into sections to form a winding stairway. Leading to where, Tamryn didn't know. It took a full minute for it all to stop, and when it did Gnarus looked up at Tamryn with a fearsome gaze that made Tamryn want to shrink away into a corner. **"At the end of these stairs, is something that has never existed on this planet, and you will NEVER say a word of what you are about to see. If you do, it could start a whole chain of events that will lead to the end of this entire universe." **Gnarus began to talk in a steady way so that he enunciated every word with a conviction and quiet anger that continued to intimidate Tamryn. He had never seen Gnarus like this before. **"Do not underestimate my words; this is beyond anything you have ever known, so I do not expect you to fully understand. Just know that there is not another soul on this planet that should ever know this. So I ask again, do you understand how serious I am being about this?" **Tamryn nodded, the words being unable to come out of his mouth. Gnarus, satisfied with Tamryn's answer, began down the stairs and motioned for Tamryn to follow.


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 11**

As Tamryn descended down the stairs his mind began to wander as to what could be at the bottom of the stairs. He had known Gnarus for a long time, and very few things ever rattled him. So when something did come up that made Gnarus even slightly nervous, it meant that things were serious. So what could possibly cause Gnarus to say the things that he had?

Once they got near the bottom the little light they had had dimmed to almost nothing. Tamryn was about to ask Gnarus if there was a light somewhere when suddenly a candle became lit, but Tamryn had never seen a match. Something about the candle stirred something in him. The dancing flame was almost hypnotizing, calling to him.

"**Tamryn!"** Tamryn was suddenly shaken from his trance, and looked at Gnarus with confusion, but his eyes soon went wide because of what else he saw in the room. In a strange display case behind Gnarus was what seemed like a suit of armor. Yet it was unlike any suit of armor Tamryn had ever seen. Instead of the normal dull silver that most armor was, this was a flawless emerald green that had the appearance of liquid metal. However, it wasn't a complete suit of armor, the only thing there were the gloves, boots, and the chest plate which was missing a circular piece out of the middle about four inches in diameter.

Gnarus noticed what Tamryn was looking at and smiled despite himself, **"You wouldn't believe how long I've had that armor. It was a gift from an old friend of mine."** At the mention of this old friend, Gnarus suddenly went solemn-faced again. Sighing, he wished he had this old friend's help now, but he wasn't here, and there was very little chance that he ever would. **"This armor was custom fit to my body, so no one else can wear it. The hole you've probably noticed in the middle is basically the keyhole to activate the armor. On top of that there are DNA sensors in the g loves and boots. I guarantee that you will never see this type of technology again, Tamryn." **

"**Why?" **Tamryn wondered, although he wasn't surprised to hear it.

"**That is what you must keep a secret, Tamryn, because this armor is not of this world. In fact, it is from another universe, as am I. That armor is made of alloy that your universe is no where near discovering, and the technology that comes with it is at least a few hundred years away from even being understood, let alone used. It's bad enough that these things are even here, but I have no way of returning anything…..I have no way of returning myself."** Once again, the age on Gnarus' face suddenly seemed to double as he thought of his home, and everything that had been left behind. Along with some of the things that he wished had been left behind. That reminded him of the task at hand.

"**I wish I could tell you more, really you're going to see too much as it is. The only reason why I'm letting you is because I think you deserve to know, and I believe that you will keep it a secret. Other than that, you simply need to know that something evil might have come with me, or at least part of it. Because of that, it is now my responsibility to handle it. Besides, no one else can." **Gnarus said the last sentence almost too quietly for Tamryn to hear.

Tamryn was rattled, probably more rattled then he'd ever been in his life. Gnarus had always been the solid person, the person who never broke down, the person that gave him courage. Now Gnarus was nervous just by talking about whatever it was that he knew.

Walking past Tamryn to the wall behind him, he heard Gnarus press a keypad and what sounded like a door opening. Turning around, Tamryn realized that the armor was only the half of what Gnarus had hidden down here.

Levitating in a similar case to the armor was what seemed like a formal military uniform, but it was unlike anything on Earth. It was a similar shade of green as the armor, only a bit darker. The long-sleeved shirt had a pattern in it, but like the armor it seemed seamless. The pattern was simply, the black outline of an X went around the entire shirt, meeting in the middle of the chest with the out line of a small circle. The arms of the shirt had similar black outlines, except that it started at the shoulders, one on the top of the shoulder and one at the armpit, and as they traveled down the arm the black outlines would two lines around the arms like serpents, and then ended with one solid, black line at the wrists. The pants had a similar design as the arms, two black outlines winding around the legs ending at the ankles with a single, solid black line. The fabric itself seemed like some sort of silk at first glance, but Tamryn then realized that it looked tough enough to pass as chain mail, yet it still looked comfortable.

Next to the levitating uniform were three more objects, two of which lay on clear, possibly glass platforms about four feet high: One was a green pendant that almost seemed to glow with its own internal fire, the next was a headband of the same, darker green that the uniform was with a small green crystal attached to the front. The last object was a sword, leaning against the back wall in a simple, black sheath made of a metal that, unlike the armor, looked like almost normal metal; clearly unable to bend with ease and made for solid protection. Tamryn noticed that built into the green hilt of the sword was a crystal almost identical to the one in the headband.

Tamryn stood mesmerized at the sheer beauty of everything in the room while Gnarus touched a button on a small remote control he had that Tamryn hadn't noticed before and the uniform seemed to begin to deflate as it started to drift slowly toward the ground. Putting the uniform on, Gnarus looked at Tamryn and said, **"The things in this room, they were all given to me, and these are the only things I have left from where I came from." **Gnarus slipped the pendant over his head and fit perfectly with the circular outline in the middle of the uniform. That's when something dawned on Tamryn.

"**Everything in this room, not just the armor, was custom-fit for you, weren't they?" ** In some ways, it almost wasn't worth asking. The answer was clear, but at least this way Tamryn could understand just how personal this way for Gnarus.

Sighing, Gnarus answered, **"Yes, they were. I was in the military at home. This armor is custom-fit for every individual to make sure that it is as effective as possible; however, this suit of armor is different because it is a symbol of the honor that I brought to my unit. Here, they give you medals if you do something good, where I come from; we get something added to our armor and swords." ** Putting on the armor again seemed to taking a toll on Gnarus. Not physically, no, he was more than capable physically. It was the sorrow that he felt washing over him as strongly as the day he had been trapped here, with no hope of ever coming back. Nevertheless, he knew what he had to do.

Taking a deep breath, he concentrated as he had hundreds of times and felt a surge of power as he felt energy burst from his brain and go racing down his arm and into his hand, which he placed on the face of the pendant. Another deep breath later, and the surge left him as it exited his palm and went into the pendant. The pendant came suddenly came alive as it began to glow and move. Where the black outline of the X met the pendant, four streaks of light came out of the pendant and traced the outline around Gnarus' body, creating a brilliant X that would around him like a halo.

As the light began to fade, it revealed that where the outline once was, there were now green strips of some solid material. Before Tamryn could ask the question, Gnarus said, **"The strips are magnets. They help keep my armor on more effectively and comfortably. If you want your curiosity satisfied more than that, it will have to wait for a later time." **Walking back toward his armor, he slid the torso piece on first. Once he was satisfied with how it sat, he pressed his hand on the pendant again and the cracking of several static charges filled the air as the pendant locked into the missing portion of the chest piece and the magnets secured the armor.

Next Gnarus put on the gloves and boots. Taking another deep breath, energy went through his body like a tidal wave, spreading through his four limbs and entering each of the gloves and boots. Light began to shine from the wrists and ankles of the armor and once again light traced the black outlines of Gnarus' uniform. Except this time, when the light faded, there were no strips of magnets. Instead there was pure, solid armor, connecting into a few niches in the torso piece that Tamryn hadn't noticed before. **"This is my favorite part."** Gnarus said. When Tamryn was just about to ask what he was talking about, light suddenly came even more brilliantly than before from Gnarus' hips and shoulders. There was a sound of creaking metal and then the light began to clear. At first Tamryn thought that the light was taking a while to clear, but then he realized it was because the new shoulder and hip pieces of the armor were gleaming in the light. **"All right, almost done. Tamryn, I want you to wait a couple minutes after I leave before you leave as well, ok?" **Even as Gnarus continued to talk, the nano-bots were going to work; creating more armor to fill in the gaps still left on his arms and legs.

Gnarus waited until Tamryn nodded, then turned and picked up his sword, attaching it to his back. Once he was satisfied and the armor was complete, Gnarus raced stealthily up the stairs and out the side door, into the night.


	12. Chapter 12

**Part 12**

Tamryn did what he was told, and waited, but it was some of the longest minutes of his life. Everything was too hard to digest. He had never really been out of the city for his entire life, and yet Gnarus was from a whole other UNIVERSE! 

Shaking his head, Tamryn decided to shove his thoughts aside for now. Now, he needed to do what Gnarus said, and leave. Opening the door, Tamryn started to take off into the night with as much speed as he could muster. 

He hadn't even gotten three blocks away when a voice called out from an alleyway, **"Hey Tamryn!"** Before he could even turn around to see who the voice was coming from there was a loud gunshot that shattered the silence of the night. As Tamryn finished turning, he saw Lucas' body crumple to the ground with a bullet hole in his head, nothing remaining in his eyes but the blank stare of death. Standing over Lucas was a man completely dressed in black: Black boots, black gloves, black cloak, black hood, everything. Very little of his face could be seen, but Tamryn could still see the murderous smile on his lips. 

Rage; it filled Tamryn's body like a wildfire. Nothing else existed other then the man who had shot Lucas. There was no city, there were no thugs or criminals, there was nothing other than that man, and he was going to pay. 

_Burn, burn, he will burn._

Tamryn's vision went red with blood, and he dashed at the man with speed that easily matched any Olympic runner. 

_HE WILL BURN!_

"**Tamryn! NO!" **Tamryn barely heard the voice that cried out somewhere behind him. All he knew was that the man who had killed Lucas was still standing, but that wouldn't last long. 

_BURN, BURN, BURN!!_

The space between Tamryn and the cloaked man quickly closed. Five feet, two feet, FWAP! WHAM!! Before Tamryn knew what was happening the man flung out his cloak and in a flurry of quick motions and side-steps he easily dodged Tamryn and sent him hurling across the alleyway. As Tamryn hit the ground, he saw nothing but stars. Slipping in and out of consciousness he was helpless as a figure walked toward him. He didn't even realize who it was until he heard Gnarus' voice as he knelt beside Tamryn saying softly: **"I'm sorry, Tamryn, I'm sorry."** Gnarus got up and began to walk toward the hooded man. The next couple minutes were a blur as Tamryn struggled to stay conscious. 

"…**.talented little firebug……singed my cloak…."  
**

"**You shouldn't be here, Terminus…….."  
**

"……**the Shadow…….world is ours……still a fool, Gnarus."  
**

"…**...I will have no choice but to kill you……"  
**

"…**..can't beat me, …….. Patronus isn't here…….."  
**

"**YOU WILL PAY!!!"**

There was the clanging of metal on metal, and then Tamryn knew nothing but blackness as he finally succumbed to the sleep that his body demanded. 

Smoke; that's the first thing Tamryn noticed as he slowly came back to the waking world. It was heavy in the air, Tamryn could smell it and his eyes stung from it. He slowly sat up, coughing all the way. That's when he remembered what happened. Everything surged back into his memory like a tidal wave, and his heart almost skipped a beat as he remembered Lucas and Gnarus. Where was Gnarus? Most of the building nearby had been put ablaze, yet there were no screams that Tamryn could hear. Maybe the people had gotten out. 

Looking around, Tamryn could barely make out two still bodies lying about thirty feet away through the smoke. His eyes widened and his heart ached. Please don't let the second body be Gnarus, please god no. Despite the heavy smoke Tamryn ran over to the bodies and made it over within just a couple of heartbeats. He collapsed on his knees as he saw the bodies of his two closest friends lying on the ground. It was Gnarus, but he was still alive. Blood trickled out of his mouth and his breathing was horribly ragged, but he was alive. A stab wound easily eight inches wide went right through Gnarus' abdomen, while his blood formed a puddle beneath Gnarus' body, slowly trickling the life out of him. 

Gnarus opened his eyes and looked up at Tamryn with sadness and regret. **"Tamryn….I'm sorry….he's too strong. You can't beat him, Tamryn…..leave…..don't look back."** Tears flowed from Tamryn's eyes stronger than any waterfall as he watched Gnarus try to hold on to life. His body shook as the tears made his vision go blurry. This couldn't be happening, this had to be a nightmare, how could this be happening? 

"**Tamryn….please….just leave….there's nothing…..you can do…..just leave….please!"** With that, after one last defiant breath, trying to hold on to life, Gnarus' eyes glazed over with the same empty stare of death that Tamryn had seen in Lucas. No, this couldn't be real, it couldn't! 

That's when Tamryn heard the laughter. Looking up, Tamryn saw the cloaked, hooded man standing at the very end of the alleyway at least sixty feet away. It was an evil laugh, a victorious laugh. The man then walked out of the alley, out of sight. 

_HE WILL BURN!! HE WILL BURN!!_

Now all of Tamryn's memories hit Tamryn in a torrent of emotion. All the years he'd spent with Gnarus, everything he'd taught Tamryn, the day he'd met Lucas, and the years after that with his friendship. Complete and total rage then took over and wiped Tamryn of any other emotion. This time, it gave him focus, it gave him strength. Tamryn got up off the ground, and began to walk away from where Gnarus and Lucas lay, toward the man that had caused their deaths. Every step was cold and calculated, bringing Tamryn that much closer to his goal. 

_Burn, burn, burn, he will burn!_

He reached the end of the alley, and turned in the direction that the man had walked. Before him stood over fifty men, armed with various weapons from pocket knifes to Sub-Machine Guns, and standing in front of them all with his arms crossed, stood the murderer himself. **"You can not win Tamryn. There are too many of us. However, if you surrender now, we will make your death quick. If not, there are always other options that I guarantee we will enjoy much more than you."** A chuckle ran through the men as gripped their weapons. 

_They will all burn!_

"**I will not surrender. You will pay."** Tamryn didn't even recognize the voice that came out of him. It was far different from his normal one; it spoke of vengeance, and an indescribable cold, solid hatred. 

"**HA! Then you will die just like that fool, Gnarus."** With that, the men cocked their guns, opened their knives, and prepared the rest of their weaponry as they started toward Tamryn with nothing but murder and impending victory in their eyes. 

_THEY WILL ALL BURN!!!_

Tunnel vision suddenly afflicted Tamryn as he ran forward with every ounce of energy he could muster. Rage was all he knew, vengeance was all he knew. 

_BURN! BURN! BURN! THEY WILL ALL BURN!!_

There was fire everywhere, it was all Tamryn could see, but he didn't care. Tamryn could hear screaming, but he didn't know where they were coming from, or even if one of them was from him. Shadows flitted in and out of his vision, but there was fire everywhere else. Energy pulsed through his body with the force of a sledgehammer, and he let it all out in pure, solid rage. Then darkness overtook him once again as he fell forward, somehow knowing that he was finished.


	13. Epilouge

**Epilogue**

There was nothing left for Tamryn. Everyone he trusted had died; everything he knew had been destroyed. He had woken up in a hospital, how long Tamryn had been out he had no idea. Before any of the doctors realized he was awake, Tamryn had escaped and found himself in an unfamiliar city. He found the tallest building near by, and climbed to the roof in an effort to get his bearings. Looking around, Tamryn saw what looked like a black desert off to the west at least ten miles in diameter. Fear filled him as a thought entered his mind, but it couldn't possibly be right. 

Once Tamryn made it to the black desert, Tamryn realized what it really was: a giant circle of charred nothingness. Almost everything had been completely leveled and reduced to total blackness. Here and there glass could be seen, created by the immense heat and pressures from the blast. Whether he was willing to accept it or not, Tamryn knew. He had been the cause of this, all of this destruction. His heart pained him, but this time no tears came. Instead his emotions seemed to leave him. Something inside him collapsed as the truth sank in. 

Now Tamryn lives where the road takes him, there was no home for him. Tamryn vowed never to use his abilities again. Never again would he cause such pain and destruction. The authorities never found out what had caused the blast, never suspecting that such a thing could be caused by a person. 

Tamryn never stuck to one place for long, always traveling, never again settling down. There was no home for him. Fear of causing more destruction kept Tamryn going, no matter who he met, or what he did. His powers are his curse, that's how he saw them. They were no longer gifts. What gifts could do the things that Tamryn had done? In some ways, Tamryn looked for a way to have a second chance, but often times he felt that it would never come. Until that time comes, he wanders alone; alone with his memories, and alone with his pain.


End file.
